Tag Archives: Feminism

A story 125 years in the making

Culture, Faith, Politics, Women, , , , , , , ,

Today is a significant anniversary here in South Australia: it is 125 years since the passing of the Adult Suffrage Bill, which gave women both the right to vote and the right to stand for parliament. SA became the second place in the world to give women the first right (after New Zealand the previous year) and the first place in the world to give women the second right.

The first was the result of hard work, petitions, campaigning, fundraisers, advocacy and support. The second was an accident.

Member of the Legislative Council, Ebenezer Ward, was a fierce opponent of women’s suffrage. When he realised that majority support had swung the other way, he came up with what he thought was a brilliant plan (now sometimes called ‘The Great Miscalculation‘). He moved an amendment to the bill that would allow women to not only vote but to stand for election as well. He thought surely such a radical proposal, one not even the suffragettes had been asking for, would lead to the entire bill being defeated. He was wrong, and he gave himself the unwanted distinction of being responsible for giving South Australian women at the time the widest enfranchisement in the world.*

As a Christian, I’m intrigued and encouraged by the involvement of many church leaders in the movement towards women’s suffrage, and the theological convictions that underpinned their advocacy. (Despite people like Ward quoting the Bible against them). Leading advocates included Mary Colton, a mother of nine and a Methodist Sunday School teacher who also founded the Adelaide Children’s Hospital; Elizabeth Nicholls, president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and another Methodist Sunday School teacher; Rosetta Birks, a devoted Baptist who married her sister’s widower and became stepmother to their six children; and Serena Lake, who initially came to Adelaide as a preacher with the Bible Christian movement, filling the town hall for her first meeting. They were well supported by men like Joseph Coles Kirby, a Congregationalist minister; Sylvanus Magarey, a medical doctor and influential member of the Churches of Christ; and Robert Caldwell, a Methodist Member of Parliament. (When the Centre for Democracy made the 1894 Suffrage Petition searchable online earlier this year, I was pleased to see leading Baptist pastor and planter of my church, Silas Mead, had signed it … not just once but three times!)

The most well known and leading advocate for women’s suffrage was Mary Lee, a non-conformist Irish widow who came to SA as a fifty-eight year old to nurse her sick son and stayed after he died. She founded the Women’s Suffrage League, writing letters and making speeches that inspired many. When questioned about “women’s place” in society under God, she wrote, ‘…however and wherever woman can be of best and widest usefulness to her fellow men and women, there, by God’s providence, is her allotted sphere.’

These are the kinds of stories we need to tell; stories of people of faith and conviction working for the good of others and for the good of society as a whole.

Too many people dismiss history as ‘boring’, perhaps because we have failed to engage them with the stories of ordinary people upon whose shoulders we stand and by whose example we can be inspired. That’s certainly how I’m feeling today, and I’m thankful for these women and men. To read more of their story, see “Votes for Women”, by Dr Helen Jones on the Women & Politics website.

But I’m also reminded that history includes stories like that of Ebenezer Ward, who made one foolish move and probably spent the rest of his life regretting it. The Adelaide newspaper of the day described him as “gifted with histrionic power … and curiously deficient in humour,” so it’s unlikely he saw the funny side of it. I think his story is worth telling too … there’s probably a lesson in there somewhere, even if not the one he planned.

 

*It is important to note that the rights granted extended to Aboriginal women. These were taken away from them by the Commonwealth in 1902 and not reinstated until 1962, another shameful chapter in the history of this nation’s treatment of its indigenous peoples.

 

 

 

A Fringe review and some reflections

Culture, Faith, , , , , , , , ,

It’s Mad March in Adelaide again, which means the Festival, the Fringe Festival, Writers Week, the now oddly-cereal-like named Superloop 500, Womadelaide and much more. Living in the city is ideal at this time of year, and I’ve loved the opportunity to wander down to the riverbank to see the Symphony for our World (which was an outstandingly beautiful reflection on creation and creativity) and Yabarra: Gathering of Light (which is an engaging and vital project grounding the city in its long history and culture).

In terms of the Fringe, so far I have seen a truly terrible comedian (who I won’t name and shame here) and an absolutely enjoyable choir performance that I have not only been singing the songs from for days, but has also had me reflecting on some deeper themes it touched on.

So, this is my part review and part reflection on The Choir of Man.

Nine talented performers singing well known songs in impressive harmonies is always going to be a recipe for a good night out. The talent on display is pretty remarkable, including a piano virtuoso, a Dein Perry-esque tap dancer, a poet or three, comedic timing, audience participation, multiple instruments and dancing styles, all held together by nine strong voices. Songs covered include those that had the audience clapping and singing along, like Welcome to the Jungle, I Would Walk 500 Miles, Some Nights, and the iconic Aussie favourite You’re the Voice; others that showcased impressive soloists telling stories through melody, like Adele’s Hello, Don Quixote’s The Impossible Dream, and Sia’s Chandelier; a heartrending rendition of Luther Vandross’ Dance With My Father during which you could have heard a pin drop; and an almost benedictory traditional closing song, The Parting Glass.

That this performance is set in a working bar, a classic English pub, where both the performers and the audience are invited to authentic fun and engagement (and to a pint or two) and is drawn together by a narrator who reflects on mateship, community, love and loss, adds to the enjoyment, but also leads me to my deeper musings.

“Some pubs have a football team or a darts club,” we are told. “This pub has a choir.”

The show is a bit of an ode to the local pub, the place where regulars can get together for a drink and share something of life. But we are also told it’s not a “boys don’t cry” kind of pub, and the idea of a community where genuine experience and emotion can be shared and supported – whether just by listening or by lending a hand – is significant throughout the storyline. To me, this is mateship. Friendship. What community should be. What for me as a Christian and a pastor, the church should be. My church is currently doing a sermon series exploring ideas of friendship and community, family, work, rest and play together, and so this show resonated with some of the same ideas, both encouraging and challenging me. Encouraging me that the church at its best has something valuable to say to our culture on this; challenging me that we can too often think we have a monopoly on it or hold it to ourselves, rather than championing it wherever we see it and inviting others into it.

This is also a show by, for, and about men. The (male) friend who recommended it to me warned that I might find it “a bit blokey.” And I did. But in a way that I loved. The characters in the pub are all pretty blokely blokes. (And yes, there is a song performed at a urinal). As a group, there’s a lot of testosterone on display. But there are men with hipster beards and man buns, as well as men with six pack muscles and classically strong jawlines. There are also men of less than average height and of over average weight. More importantly, these are not only men who sing and dance together, but men who are unafraid to both laugh and cry together. These are men who provide a glimpse into what male camaraderie and mateship can be.

And while there is some serenading of women in the audience and relationship woes played for laughs, at the end of the night I realised that they had managed to put on a public performance of broad-shouldered masculinity that didn’t need to objectify or degrade women to do so. (Unlike the aforementioned comedian, who the less said about the better). One review of The Choir of Man I read said this was a picture of the “opposite of toxic masculinity” and that’s not a bad description. In a cultural moment where there are certain voices criticising feminism for seeking to emasculate men, these guys affirm that it is a not an either/or proposition. They reminded me in some ways of my brothers and what I love about them. And in a week where unfortunately I had yet again had some (men) devalue what I do simply because of my gender, I needed to be reminded of that.

Of course, these brothers of mine, in my church family and community, go much further than a 90-minute performance. They don’t just meet the minimum standard of “not degrading women,” but champion and advocate for women, make space for us, support us and honour us, all without compromising their masculinity.  I value what they as men have to offer that I cannot, as they value what I as a woman bring. I love doing life alongside them.

As I watched this performance, in the back of my mind was the sermon I had been writing for Sunday. Perhaps that’s what put me in such a reflective mood. Talking about what ‘rest’ and ‘play’ look like for the church, I was challenged to consider how we encourage one another to explore and appreciate creativity in all its forms, and where we are talking about what we see and hear and experience in art, song, comedy, music, where it resonates with the creativity of our Creator, and how it keeps us hearing his calls to life in all its flourishing.

For me, the ongoing questions are how Jesus calls men and women to life together, and all of us to the expression of community, in ways that reflect and point to who He is and what He is bringing about.

Gospel and culture: The inspiration of Wonder Woman and the disappointment of its postscript

Culture, Faith, Women, , , , , ,

It was a real joy to participate in Tabor’s inaugural Theologicon conference a couple of weeks ago, presenting a session on Wonder Woman. We had a great day talking about the intersections between pop culture and the gospel and looking at how the media we engage with both reflects and shapes the world around us. While I am basically an outsider to the ‘Comicon’ crowd, I think this was a useful position from which to analyse the movie and in particular to consider the connection points between its story and the gospel story, as well as why it resonated so strongly with many women in our culture.

Wonder Woman is ultimately a story about grace.

The film’s climactic moment comes when Diana realises the falsity of the key assumption she has made – an assumption which is the conventionally accepted wisdom of our day – that humanity at its heart is good. She sees the darkness and hatred within humanity and realises that they don’t deserve her help or her love. But she chooses to give it anyway. That’s grace. It’s an echo of the best story ever told, the good news of an incarnate God who recognises our brokenness and undeservedness but chooses to redeem us anyway because of his great love.

It’s also worth considering why this particular iteration of Wonder Woman was so popular and seemed to speak so powerfully to many women. I heard numerous comments from friends and students along the lines of “Now I understand why guys like superhero movies so much!” A wide array of memes on social media showed similar resonances.

At Theologicon, I suggested that in a world where male characters continue to make up over 70% of characters on screen in popular films and speak more than twice as often as their female counterparts, where women’s roles are trivialised and overtly sexualised, Wonder Woman was both a breath of fresh air and a powerful statement. I think it tapped into the frustrations and desires of many women in this cultural context and spoke in particular about how they wish they were seen more often.

Diana Prince in 2017’s Wonder Woman is both empowered and empowering. She is heroic, brave and strong. She is the protagonist of her own story, but the men surrounding her do not appear threatened or emasculated by her. She is portrayed as clearly feminine and yet not overly sexualised. She is emotionally vulnerable, idealistic, perhaps even naïve, and her greatest strengths lie in her compassion, her love and her hope. She upends the assumptions that a parade of men make about her to ensure that she is fully heard and seen. She fires up our imagination of what a girl can be.

I proposed that something in this movie crystallised a wider cultural moment that many women are experiencing. In a world of #YesallWomen and #Metoo and an industry of the likes of Weinstein and Cosby, it felt like part of the reclaiming of women’s voices and experiences, not to privilege them above those of men, but to put them alongside as equally valuable as well as uniquely contributive.

And I think this brings a challenge to the church, which unfortunately has a reputation in this area that is not that dissimilar to the overall reputation of most superhero movies. That is, a reputation of assigning women a second-class status and a subordinate role. Of telling its story predominantly through the voices and perspectives of men. Of failing to inspire imagination in women of all they are created and called to be. This greatly saddens me because it is not the way the Bible or the gospel presents women, who are invited to be co-heirs with Christ and participants in the co-creating work of God.

I want to continue challenging the church to inspire this kind of imagination in our women and girls alongside our men and boys.

So obviously my review of the movie was pretty positive. I’m currently writing up my session on Wonder Woman into some kind of academic paper (!) and so will continue to ponder some of these thoughts further.

But for all my positivity, my pop-culture analysis experience comes with a frustrating and disappointing postscript. Some of the DC fans who attended my session asked me afterwards if I was planning to see Justice League, the new EDCU movie in which Wonder Woman is a key character. I hadn’t previously thought about it, but in answering their questions, discovered that my genuine answer was yes. I had found Wonder Woman engaging enough to go see the follow up, no doubt fulfilling the hopes of the movie’s producers and marketers of drawing a new consumer cohort to their ongoing enterprise.

So last weekend I saw Justice League and all I can do is sigh. Two steps forward, five steps back.

I lost count of the number of camera shots that went up Wonder Woman’s skirt or zoomed in on her butt. I was irritated and disturbed by the sexualisation of both Diana and her entire tribe in the costuming choices made for them. I rolled my eyes at the objectifying way that every other character in the movie relates to Diana. And I lamented the lack of any other female leads, as if one out of six is somehow equality.

Many others have commented on the differences between the two movies, and in particular the gender of their respective directors and the deflating impact of storytelling this particular character via the male gaze. If Wonder Woman tapped into the hopes for how women would like to be portrayed, Justice League felt like it mansplained them to put them back into their usual Hollywood blockbuster place. Sorry DC, but I think you might just have lost me.

Fortunately, the much bigger story that I’m far more interested in how we tell has an abundantly better postscript. The forthcoming instalment of the gospel story is one in which all things are set right once and for all. Where our imagination of all we can be finds expression in the complete realisation of all our hopes for reconciled relationships between women, men, God and all of creation. Where ultimate grace and justice triumph. No disappointments there.